Scully dips a toe into the water with Kurnell test plants

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Work is set to begin on two small pilot plants that will test
seawater off the coast of Kurnell, in preparation for the building
of what is expected to be the world's biggest desalination
plant.

The Utilities Minister, Carl Scully, yesterday announced that
the pilot plants - each about the size of a shipping container -
would be used for research by the consortiums bidding to build a
desalination plant capable of producing 500 megalitres of
drinking-quality water a day.

Sydney Water will build the intake and output pipes - at a cost
to the taxpayer of about $5million - but the consortiums will pay
for and operate the pilot plants, and remove them after six months
of research.

From October 1, Sydney water bills rose by at least 9 per cent
in a bid by the State Government to ration the city's dwindling
supply of fresh water and to cover some of the costs for the
proposed desalination plant.

Sydney Water has set aside $94 million to buy land at Kurnell on
which to build the $2 billion plant, and to finance the
construction of intake and output pipes for the pilot plants.

The managing director of Sydney Water, David Evans, described
the pilot plants as "large-scale laboratory testing devices" that
would take ocean water from different depths, and at different
temperatures, and work out how best to turn it into drinking
water.

The bidders will use data generated by this research to produce
more detailed proposals.

The water tested in the pilot plants will be discharged into a
local sewage treatment plant.

At the end of the testing period the pilot plants, and the pipes
drawing water from the sea and sending it to the sewage plant, will
be decommissioned and removed from Kurnell.

"The whole idea is to create competitive tension so both parties
have an incentive to come up with the best deal," Mr Evans said.
"Given the development of [technology] it is unlikely they will
come up with completely different approaches, but they will have
variations."